On Monday night in Mexico, this season’s most successful WTA players swapped their tennis clothes for glamorous dresses to attend a private gala at the Palacio Municipal de Zapopan and reveal the draw of the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara. Thanks to Jimmie48, we have a lot of beautiful photos from the event.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus rocked a shimmering red velvet dress by Nadine Merabi.
The figure-hugging silhouette features an asymmetric floor sweeping drape and wrap detail. The 23-year-old completed the look with silver high heel sandals.
The top-seeded Sabalenka is part of Group Chichen Itza, together with Maria Sakkari, Iga Swiatek and Paula Badosa.
Reigning French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova chose a romantic, subtly striped white one-shoulder midi dress.
The Czech is in Group Teotihuacan, together with Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza and Anett Kontaveit.
In doubles competition, Krejcikova and her doubles partner Katerina Siniakova are part of Group El Tajin.
Former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova, making her fifth straight appearance at the WTA Finals, wore a long-sleeved black mini dress with leopard print skirt and elegant black strap heels.
Maria Sakkari, the first Greek woman who has qualified for the season-ending tournament, wore a blue, deep V-neck dress with night sky motifs. The feminine, ankle-length dress was accessorized with platform heels, wavy hairstyle and drape earrings.
Iga Swiatek chose a mauve wrap nightgown-style dress with ruffled hem and black flats.
Garbine Muguruza, the only player besides Pliskova with experience in the singles competition at the season-ending tournament, wore a high-neck dress with watercolor paint print on the front.
Paula Badosa has made her Top 10 debut this week and it is evident that she is glowing. The Spanish player showed up at the private gala in a tight-fitting long shoulderless black dress by Chanel and black stilettos with white accents on the heels.
Part of the reason behind Badosa’s glow must also be her handsome boyfriend Juan Betancourt, who accompanies her in Guadalajara. He wrote on his Instagram: “How lucky I’m for being by your side when one of your biggest dreams came true. You are a clear example that with hard work, effort and sacrifice you can achieve your goals, proud of you.”
Last-minute qualifier Anett Kontaveit of Estonia opted for a shimmering, pink, sleeveless dress.
The season’s leading doubles teams also attended the glamorous draw ceremony.
Doubles groups at the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara are as follows:
Group Tenochtitlan
2. Shuko Aoyama (JPN) & Ena Shibahara (JPN)
4. Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) & Demi Schuurs (NED)
5. Samantha Stosur (AUS) & Zhang Shuai (CHN)
7. Darija Jurak (CRO) & Andreja Klepac (SLO)
Group El Tajin
1. Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) & Katerina Siniakova (CZE)
3. Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) & Elise Mertens (BEL)
6. Alexa Guarachi (CHI) & Desirae Krawczyk (USA)
8. Sharon Fichman (CAN) & Giuliana Olmos (MEX)
The 50th staging of the WTA Finals is set to begin on Wednesday, November 10th. Total prize pool is five million dollars.
Most of the singles people look dreadful as usual. The only one with any style is Garbine and she looks fabulous as usual. These young women are all pretty rich and yet somehow they can’t pull a decent outfit together. Don’t they have stylists? Barbora Krejikova’s dress looks straight out of the worst part of the 1980s! (Although I’m sure she is a very nice person!) Some of the doubles people look like they might look ok but it’s a bit hard to see – Shuai, Elise, Su-weh (although her lipstick is weird). But in some ways Demi Schuurs looks the best of the lot!
CLT, my favorite look was Paula Badosa. Her outfit was stylish and overall she was glowing. You can see her good energy. I agree with you that WTA players tend to pick unflattering dresses. It does sometimes confuse me, since they have enough money to buy good stuff, but I guess they simply focus on other things in life. The only person with spot-on style at all times was Maria Sharapova.
Yes, I thought Paula wasn’t too bad, but I’m not sure that a strapless dress flatters any tennis player, they generally have big shoulders and upper arms. Also Paula has a terrific figure and yet somehow this dress manages not to display it. But at least her dress is simple and stylish. And yes Maria was certainly ahead of everyone else for style.